Galway Garda overtime tops €100k a month

The Garda overtime bill amounts to more than €100,000 on average every month in Galway, new figures reveal.

Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald has confirmed that the overtime bill for the Galway Garda Division stood at €902,590.

That overtime bill relates to the first nine months of this year, from January up to the end of August, she said.

Minister Fitzgerald said the overtime was attributed to a number of key operations carried out by An Garda Síochána.

She explained that the visit of US Vice-President Joe Biden to Mayo earlier this year would have involved a ‘major’ police and security operation involving overtime of Gardaí from the Galway District.

So too did policing of events to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising, this Easter – there was a heightened threat of dissident Republican violence during the celebrations, according to police sources.

Meanwhile, Minister Fitzgerald said specific anti-crime operations such as Operation Thor, which targeted organised criminal gangs and repeat offenders, also contributed to the size of the overtime bill.

For comparison, the Clare Garda Division had an overtime bill of €548,097 while Minister Fitzgerald gave a breakdown of other divisions’ overtime including: Cork City (€627,021), Cork North (€270,507), Cork West (€198,257), Kilkenny/Carlow (€821,588), Laois/Offaly (€1,222,271), Limerick (€966,164), Tipperary (€969,942) and Waterford (€638,861).

Meanwhile, Minister Fitzgerald also confirmed that as of August there are 36 Garda Reserves assigned to the Galway Garda Division.

She said plans are afoot to more than double the number of Garda Reserves nationally, and bring the strength of the force up from 789 members currently to 2,000.